This will be the new home for questions and responses addressed to (me and) John Polkinghorne.
As before, if you email nb_"at"_sciteb.com a question with Q4JCP in the subject I'll look at it and if it seems sensible respond. I aim then to send most of them to John to see if he has something to add, but have got rather behind on this. Your question (edited, including removing personal information) and the responses will then be posted here.

Sunday, 17 April 2011

Why is information from the Bible not used for science?

I am quite newly Christian. I've just read the article about you and the Divine Action Program in "Physics of the Divine" by Zeeya Merali in the March 2011 Issue of Discover Magazine. I am a layperson. And while I have postsecondary education and have read some books on quantum physics, the detailed science often moves across my brain like the Saskatchewan wind blows over skiffs of prairie snow: it's briefly there, and then.... it's moved on!

That said... I am inspired by how you are building connections between science and God, and grateful for the work you do. My question is maybe too simple, but I really need to ask it after reading this Discover article and thought you'd be the perfect person to ask (how great you have this website):

Q: As regards some of these unexplained mysteries at the quantum level in the physical world, why is information from the bible not considered as a possible source of insight or knowledge in these matters, in the scientific dialogue? Or maybe it is, and the article just does not have that focus?God communicates with us in the Bible in many ways, and certainly the conviction that a loving ultimate creator God was behind the universe was a major inspiration for the great Christians from Newton to Maxwell and beyond who discovered much of science. The Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge still has inscribed the words of Psalm 111: 'Magna opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus', meaning 'The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein'.

However it is clear from reading the Bible that God is concerned there to communicate the fundamental relationships between God and His creation including esp. humanity, not to communicate scientific details. So whereas the Bible can and does inspire scientists to deep insights, any insights however motivated then have to be subject to scientific scrutiny in the usual ways.

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About Me

I'm webmaster of starcourse.org and polkinghorne.net.
IRL I'm a social philosopher/ strategy consultant, have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. Much of my thought on science and religion is outlined in my 2009 book "Questions of Truth" with John Polkinghorne.